The Silence of the Lambs
As we look back on the decade, it's interesting to see how the cinematic landscape has changed, and how it hasn't. This list calls attention to what I feel are the 9 most influential films released between 1990 and 1999. This has nothing to do with the urgency of the films' messages, or even how good the films are; in fact,… read more!
Hook
The only criterion for this particular list is that these are all films I have actually seen - and, in most cases, paid for - in theaters. There are far too many bad movies on video and cable to even begin listing those, but most of them are footnotes anyway. I mean to target the more high-profile films that people… read more!
Sliding Doors
When I was first trying to get people interested in Foreign Correspondents, many warned me that I'd have a difficult time selling it because the film was split into two separate stories. I guess it's just something filmmakers aren't supposed to do. But two years later, today's cinema is flooded with features from all over the world that consist of… read more!
Excuses, excuses
With all the woes I had finding a distributor for my first feature Foreign Correspondents, I thought I'd share some of the many excuses distributors will give you as you try to sell your film and/or screenplay. Remember, of course, that 99% of the people you meet in this industru have absolutely no power, so these underlings come up with… read more!
Gay, bald, churchgoing Andy Warhol(a)
Happy birthday, Andy! The late artist would have been 71 today. One of the 20th century's best-known painters, he is ironically most famous for his quote about being famous (for 15 minutes). But still, there are many simple facts about the man's life that the ordinary person may not know. I thought I'd share some. He was gay. It's obvious… read more!
Patrick and I both worked on this interactive CD
In my life, I have discovered many strange coincidences that tie me to noted British actor Patrick Stewart, a man I don't personally know. So I present this list primarily as proof of how small the world is, and also as a belated birthday greeting to Mr. Stewart, who turned 59 last week. My close friend for years, Craig, once… read more!
The most dependable entry into Hollywood
So, you wanna be in showbiz, eh? Well, there are many ways to get your foot in the door, even if you don't know a soul in LA. As somebody who has more or less been there, allow me to share my insights, so that you may better prepare yourself for your rise to the top. There are, of course,… read more!
Several photos on this wall were Melanie Lynskey’s own
June 26 is an anniversary of sorts: it is the day, in 1996, when each of the two stories in my film Foreign Correspondents begins. So to celebrate this fictional birthday, here is more trivia – consider this a sequel to a list I wrote last year – that will hopefully also shed a little light on the indie filmmaking process. Just feet… read more!
Some Austrian woman thought I was Al Bundy
When I first set up my Foreign Correspondents movie website in late 1997, the Internet was still rather small, and people searching for things related to my film's actors or subject matter would often wind up at the site and then email me their queries. I made a number of good friends this way. Sometimes, though, I'd get a letter… read more!
Tampopo
I'm hungry, so I decided to make a list about movies that deal with food – and I mean movies that are all about food. Movies filled with food. Movies infatuated with food. It's funny that, with food such an important part of our lives, there are actually very few movies that focus on food as a central theme. It's… read more!
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Happy birthday to me! Mark Tapio Kines turns 29 years old today. April 26 usually gets a bad rap, and who can blame it? This day marks the anniversary of the death of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth, the Chernobyl disaster, the bombing of Guernica (which inspired Picasso's famous painting), and the marriage of Arnold Schwarzenegger. But let's pay tribute… read more!
Let’s turn Foreign Correspondents into a TV series!
While making my first feature Foreign Correspondents, I received lots of outrageous and inane suggestions from people who thought that the film needed improvement. I shouldn't dismiss all of these comments as stupid, necessarily, but they were all useless and/or inappropriate for this particular project. It does at least go to show you that a great many "experts" in Hollywood… read more!
Children of Heaven
Just before Oscar time - and just before the big glut of 1999 films starts pouring out - I thought I'd sneak in under the wire with my own annoying list of movies that I think you should watch. Please note that, although I'm calling these the nine best movies of 1998, they are really just nine films that I… read more!
Lots of Koreans; not much summer heat
Since half of my film Foreign Correspondents is about living in the city of Los Angeles, what better way to kick off the new year - soaking up the warm sunshine and blue skies while the rest of America freezes - with some myth-debunking truths about life in the City of Angels. And please, I'm not offering these up for… read more!